The concept of a RAM based disk substitute has been a part of the Personal Computer (PC) for many years. There are many software programs that set aside blocks of installed main memory for use as a temporary disk partition. The effect of creating such partitions is intended to improve the overall performance of the PC. One advantage of such a product is the increased speed at which a user can access a program or data that is stored in the RAM-based disk partition; However, a drawback of these products is reduced system performance when too much of the main memory is reserved for the RAM-based disk partition. In this case, insufficient scratch pad memory is available to hold the executing program and associated data. This reduction in available main memory forces the PC to use the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) to extend the storage space that it requires to run the application and access the data. This action is commonly referred to as paging.
It is well-known that access performance of a HDD is lower than that of main memory. The performance degradation due to paging to the HDD rapidly overwhelms any performance gain from the use of a RAM-based disk. The performance degradation effects are further compounded in systems that share main memory for integrated graphics solutions (known as Unified Memory Architecture (UMA)). The UMA graphics rely on sharing main memory for the frame buffer and operational scratchpad in a manner similar to that of RAM-based disk products. Systems supporting RAM-based disks and UMA graphics have three sources competing for main memory resources.
Most PC systems offer upgrade options to increase the amount of main memory via, for example, existing extra DRAM memory module connectors on the motherboard. However, these extra connectors are usually difficult to access by the end-user, and in the case of many new systems may not even be available at all.
What is needed is a product and a method for the PC end-user to add low-cost high performance memory to their PC that improves the overall performance of that personal computer with no impact to the main memory resources.